By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Dowagiac Daily News
NILES - Stop, you're not my Mom.
This is just one of the phrases children in Niles learned this week at the first r.a.d.Kids class offered by Niles City Police Officer Kevin Kosten and Michigan State Trooper Rob Herbstreith of the Niles post.
The r.a.d.Kids class took place at the Niles Law Enforcement Complex Monday through today.
It teaches the kids to resist aggression defensively and was taught to kids between ages 5 and 12.
This afternoon, from 4 to 7 p.m., there will be a demonstration ceremony for parents and those who brought the kids to the class to see what they have learned through out the class.
There are three main principals which are used to teach the kids through out the class.
The first thing the kids are taught is that no one has the right to hurt them because, they are special.
The second thing is they don't have a right to hurt anyone else including themselves unless someone is trying to physically hurt them.
If this happens then they have a right to stop them.
And lastly, nothing that happens to them in the case of a stranger coming up to them is their fault. When it's not their fault, then they can tell someone about what happened.
The r.a.d. Kids program is relatively new and Kosten and Herbstreith are the first ones to run such a class in Berrien County, as they recently attended a kids safety defense course in order to teach the r.a.d. Kids class. The class is a spin off of the womens rape defense class which is taught in many communities.
The two hour class is broken down into two different parts. For the first part of the class is the curriculum part where the kids are taught what exactly a stranger and situations in which its alright to defend themselves.
The second part of the class is where the kids are taught how to be safe as Kosten and Herbstreith run drills with the kids on different self defense moves.
Worley also attended the course with Kosten and Herbstreith and is planning to implement it into the Girl Power program which she is in charge of at Patrick Hamilton Middle School.